Hi All, I just recently bought a four CD set of Schubert Piano Sonatas with Radu Lupu and on the whole I just love it. Lupu's rich and beautiful tone is quite something and the sense of design and forward momentum in most of the sonatas is very convincing and impressive. There are a few things that are bothering me though and keeping me from complete enjoyment of the set. First there seems to be either an engineering issue or interpretive issue(or both) wherein the louder moments are too loud and the softer moments too soft. This makes me have to adjust the volume as I'm listening which shouldn't be necessary. Then there are other interpretive issues such as in the recapitualtion of the haunting melody in the Andantino of the great A Major sonata where Lupu doesn't seem to stress the chords that counterpoint this melody enough or the awfully slow Moderato in the A minor D845 sonata which seems to be taken Lento! This makes the sonata much less exciting than it could be. There are many more details such as these which are small but still keep me from completely enjoying Lupu's interpretations. The B flat major is an example of where I am completely with Lupu throughout and it's simply gorgeous and very moving. As I stated at the beginning of this post I mostly like this set a great deal and have been listening to it non-stop since I bought it. But I am not as enthusiastic about the performances as I am with Kempff, Schnabel, some Brendel, and Zacharias. I find it first rate but problematic. Are there any yays or nays in the audience? All the best, Peter Herwitz *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html